State regulators inspect oil and gas wells sporadically, do not consistently record violations and impose light penalties on companies that are found to break environmental, health or safety rules, according to a new research report issued by the environmental watchdog group Earthworks.

The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District intends to sell water from two reservoirs in eastern Ohio to natural gas drillers, despite an earlier plan to halt sales until a water availability study can be completed.

The district said it will sell water from Clendening Lake in Harrison County and Piedmont Lake, mostly in Belmont County, during the fall drawdown when lakes are lowered for the winter.

Here’s a memo to the technocrats, pundits, environmental organizations and foundations that believe corporate collaborations and market-based solutions are the key to solving the critical environmental problems facing us. Why are you so afraid of fighting for what we really want—a future based on renewable energy and energy efficiency?

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Gov. Tom Corbett today attacked anti-drilling activists as the "unreasoning opposition" who accept the nation can land a space vehicle on Mars but don’t believe energy companies can safely harvest gas a mile under the earth’s surface.

Corbett, speaking Thursday at a Marcellus Shale industry conference in Philadelphia, touted the economic benefits of shale-gas development and hailed drillers as the "tip of the spear" of a new industrial revolution.

"After all the predictions of disaster and the fearful warnings from people with no understanding of the industry, Pennsylvania is reaping a bounty," said the Republican governor. "Marcellus has reached into some very old corners of our economy and our state and brought them back to life."

As Corbett spoke, activists opposed to hydraulic fracturing, the technique that’s allowed drillers to extract natural gas from shale deposits deep underground, were planning their own slate of events outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Protesters portray shale-gas drilling as bad for the environment and a danger to public health.

The second annual Shale Gas Insight conference drew more than 1,000 energy executives at a time of tremendous change for the drilling industry. Companies are shifting rigs to drill for natural gas liquids and oil in the face of historically low natural gas prices. They’re adjusting to a major overhaul of state drilling regulations and recently paid a first-ever state "impact fee" of more than $200 million.

Corbett said the drillers are here to stay. He said shale gas has already spurred a nascent recovery in Pennsylvania’s manufacturing sector, pointing to Shell’s proposed multibillion-dollar petrochemical plant in western Pennsylvania and a recent deal to prevent a Philadelphia refinery from closing in part by expanding the use of gas from the Marcellus formation, which holds the nation’s largest reservoir of gas.

"We need vision, one that ties this state’s future to an economy unshackled by needless regulation, but which guards against the desolation of cut-and-run practices," Corbett said. "Pennsylvania is getting it right."

Corbett’s environmental secretary, Michael Krancer, later took part in a panel discussion on natural gas and the presidential race. Playing the role of surrogate for GOP nominee Mitt Romney, Krancer attacked President Barack Obama’s energy policy as "nothing but what’s above the ground, or wind and solar above all" while touting Romney’s energy plan.

Krancer, a harsh critic of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, also denounced his federal counterparts as "rogue and out-of-control."

Krancer’s spokeswoman said he took a personal day and paid his own way to the event.

Kathleen McGinty, who led Pennsylvania’s environmental agency under Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, was Obama’s surrogate and said the president favors an "all of the above" energy policy.

Environment Ohio today held a press conference in the Cleveland suburb of Broadview Heights to release a 49-page report that looks at the costs associated with hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

The report looks at anecdotal reports of problems from shale drilling areas across the country. It offers no estimate at to how much the costs associated with drilling are, except that it is the millions of dollars.

In another sign that natural gas is supplanting coal in the energy landscape, EmberClear Corp., a Canadian power developer, announced Wednesday it plans to build a 300-megawatt generation plant in Schuylkill County on a site where it had once envisioned a plant fueled by coal.

Stark State College in Stark County's Jackson Township is getting federal funds to provide additional training for workers in the natural gas drilling industry.

Stark State College will participate in the Pennsylvania College of Technology Consortium to provide entry-level certifications in Ohio's Utica shale and to add a series of certificates and degree programs for drilling employees.

State Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations (STRONGER, Inc. has elected Thomas E. Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA), as the chair of its board of directors.

Prior to joining OOGA, Stewart had15 years of formal experience in the oil and gas industry as a producer and provider of contract drilling services.

The Natural Resources Defense Council today announced creation of its Community Fracking Defense Project in Ohio and four other states.

The initiative is designed to provide legal and policy assistance to towns and local communities seeking added control or protections from hydraulic fracturing or fracking in their communities. That could include pushing for added home-rule protections..

The Eastern Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists will convene September 22-26 in Cleveland to discuss new discoveries and activities in major geologic basins, including the Marcellus, Utica, Point Pleasant, Huron, Rhinestreet and New Albany formations.

Presented by The Ohio Geological Society, the 41st Annual Meeting of the ESAAPG will take place at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel. Cleveland was the host city in 1972 when the Section met for the first time.

The opening session Sunday afternoon features comments by the John T. Galey Awardee and the Keynote Address by Thomas M. O’Brien, CEO/Managing Director/President of TravelCenters of America who will address the delegation of principally upstream scientists with a downstream perspective on developing natural gas markets.

“Ohio is the focus of worldwide attention with the Marcellus and Utica shales - it is the most exciting new resource play on the planet,” said David E. Harmon, Geologist and current President of the ESAAPG, which covers four major geologic basins currently generating increasing interest and significant investments across the country.

The theme for the conference is “Classic Rocks, 153 Years of Performance.” BHP Billiton is the Prime Sponsor and will be among more than 50 exhibitors sharing new technology and services.

The meeting will also include open technical sessions and networking opportunities with geoscientists working toward a better understanding of the Appalachian, Michigan, Illinois, and Black Warrior Basins. Short courses, field trips and 113 original presentations delivered by world-renowned scientists cover a wide range of shale development related topics, including techniques for understanding the petrophysics and geochemistry to Marcellus Shale case studies and modern drilling and completion techniques.

In addition, a wide range of environmental topics will also be covered, including impacts of mineral extraction and carbon sequestration. Unique social and networking events are also on the playbill, including a reception at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Visit www.esaapg2012 for additional information and a full description of all conference offerings.

The stage is set for the preeminent scientific conference for geoscientists working the basins of eastern North America, and securing America’s energy future.

The Economist has a column on whether the U.S. experience in fracking can be repeated elsewhere in the world.

The story starts: "SCOTT Stevens of Advanced Resources International gave an interesting talk at a Hong Kong conference this week on the future for shale gas supplies. This is one of the most interesting (and encouraging) developments of the last few years for the US economy; a plentiful source of cheap energy.

PITTSBURGH: A new fee on gas drilling has generated millions of dollars more in revenue than first projected, but other major gas-producing states tax the industry at higher rates, according to an Associated Press analysis.

And the state still won’t be setting aside a share to track possible health impacts of drilling.

The state said this week that it has collected almost $202 million of the roughly $206 million in impact fees that’s due from gas drilling companies. Projections this spring had been for about $180 million. A few drillers are disputing their bills.

Other states considered to be friendly to the oil and gas industry levy higher taxes on natural gas.

Texas imposes a 7.5 percent tax on the market value of gas produced, and West Virginia and Wyoming are at about 6 percent. Those states base taxes on actual production. Pennsylvania’s fee is mostly based on number of wells, and the 2011 revenue works out to about a 5 percent rate.

Pennsylvania’s 2011 production would have generated about $300 million at Texas’ rate, and $240 million at the rate in Wyoming and West Virginia, the AP found.

The disparity could rise in the near future, since production is still soaring in Pennsylvania, but producers won’t pay based on that. For example, at this year’s output drillers should sell between $6 billion and $7 billion in gas — enough to generate $360 million to $525 million of taxes in the other states.

According to an analysis from Republican state Sen. Gene Yaw, Pennsylvania’s revenues for 2012 are expected to rise by about $30 million. If that projection is accurate, next year’s total here will be about $235 million.

The legislation that created the impact fee also originally gave Pennsylvania health officials a share of the revenue, but representatives from Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s office and the state Senate cut that to zero during final negotiations. The department still has some other funds to use, but not enough to create a registry of public health impacts, which had been a top priority.

Any amendment to the law will have to be voted on again by the full legislature, said Patrick Henderson, the state’s energy executive. He wouldn’t speculate on whether Corbett will ask for the health department funding to be restored.

It’s also not clear whether Secretary of Health Dr. Eli Avila will continue to seek a share of the funds. Health department spokeswoman Christine Cronkright did not respond to that question.

The state will take about $23 million off the top of this year’s $202 million. About $107 million will be split among 37 counties and some 1,500 municipalities hosting gas wells. The money can be used to fix roads, bridges and other infrastructure, provide affordable housing, preserve open space and buy equipment for first responders, among other expenses that have cropped up as gas industry workers have moved into towns in large numbers and strained available public resources.

The rest of the fee revenue will be split among state agencies dealing with drilling impacts.

Officials from two counties with heavy drilling activity had somewhat different plans for their portion of the money.

Washington County in southwest Pennsylvania has not made a final decision, said director of administration Scott Fergus, but added that the county has had "a lot of bridges that have had wear and tear because of the industry." Fergus said the county supports the industry, but feels companies should pay their share of costs.

Bradford County commissioner Doug McLinko said he didn’t even support the fee because he feels the industry has done so much for the northeast Pennsylvania county.

"The first thing we’re going to do is to pay all of our county debt. Every taxpayer gets a tax decrease at that point," McLinko said, adding that the county would likely then focus on infrastructure needs and job creation.

Jennifer Kocher, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Utility Commission, said the panel hasn’t done projections for future years. That’s because the fee here is based partly on the wholesale price of gas, which can vary widely from year to year, and on the number of new wells that are drilled.

The Wall Street Journal interviews oil and energy guru Daniel Yergin and the Via Meadia blog at The American Interest has some thoughts.

Via Meadia: "America’s energy revolution has the potential to fundamentally alter the way we think about geopolitics, economics and energy policy. But this revolution is happening so quickly that many of us are still having trouble wrapping our heads around it all.

Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone wants city council to give administrators permission to sell mineral rights on city-owned land to drillers who want to extract oil and natural gas from underground shale formations, the Youngstown Vindicator reports.

Abandoned oil and gas well are increasingly marring the West Virginia landscape, as the Department of Environmental Protection office assigned to oversee them falls further behind with inspections and regulatory enforcement, according to a report released Tuesday to a pair of West Virginia House-Senate interim oversight committees.

New York's big decision on whether to allow horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing or fracking appears to have been put off again.

Governor Andrew Cuomo this week said he would not pressure the Department of Environmental Conservation to announce its final decision on whether fracking can be safely used in the near future to extract natural gas.

Washington, D.C: The Center for American Progress Action Fund’s Public Lands Project today released a new report which examines the plans of the two candidates alongside their previous votes and policy positions.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead has asked the U.S. Interior Department to scale back — or abandon altogether — proposed rules that would require petroleum companies to disclose the chemicals they inject down well bores during hydraulic fracturing.

Pennsylvania's environmental chief asserted two months ago that a faulty gas well that spiked nearby drinking-water wells with high levels of methane had been patched, and "the situation is for the most part over."

The new owner of the Cleveland Browns professiona football team is also betting on Ohio's Utica shale boom.

Jimmy Haslam, president and chief executive of the Pilot Flying J truck stop company, has bought out two fuel providers that serve the drilling industry: Utah's Western Petroleum and Connecticut's Maxum Petroleum.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has paid nearly $9,000 to an environmental group to settle a public-records lawsuit.

The Columbus Dispatch (http://bit.ly/Q3Cpue ) reports today that the state paid the Ohio Sierra Club a $1,000 settlement plus nearly $8,000 in expenses to end the case.

The Sierra Club had sued the state in April, claiming that officials had ignored records requests for months. The group wanted to see all documents and emails related to the agency’s plan to open state parks and forests to shale drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

The documents and emails were released in four batches over two months. They showed that officials had considered keeping drilling rigs farther from campgrounds and other attractions than a proposed 300 feet.

A new petroleum pipeline from Ohio would ease gasoline shortages in Western Pennsylvania and help stabilize prices at the pump, experts said Thursday.

Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. plans to build about 160 miles of underground pipeline in Pennsylvania and Ohio, connecting the new lines with some existing ones, to transport refined oil products from the Midwest to eastern Ohio and the Pittsburgh region.

The move by the Philadelphia-based master limited partnership is "part of a national trend. We are seeing a lot of structural changes" designed to flow petroleum from expanding production areas and refineries to markets where demand exists, said Brian L. Milne, refined fuels editor for commodity information services provider Telvent DTN.

"We have a lot of pipelines in this country, but they are not going where they are needed right now," he said.

Philadelphia-based Sunoco said its Allegheny Access pipeline will be able to deliver 85,000 barrels a day when it goes into operation in the first half of 2014, and it could scale up to 110,000 barrels of capacity.

New lines will be up to 12 inches in diameter and mostly will be built along existing rights of way, running parallel to current pipes when possible, Sunoco Logistics said.

Shippers provided sufficient commitments to use the pipeline in a recent "open season" to push the project forward, said the partnership, which also includes Inland Corp., which is 83 percent-owned by Sunoco Logistics. The cost was not disclosed.

Industry experts listed reasons to build the pipeline now:

—Crude oil from domestic regions such as North Dakota, now the second-largest U.S. oil producer after tripling output in the last three years, is as much as $40 a barrel cheaper than the imported crude that East Coast refiners process. That creates a price advantage.

—Several refineries on the East Coast and in the Caribbean have been idled in recent years, and because most of Pittsburgh’s supply traditionally has come from the East, the region has experienced volatile prices and some shortages.

—Expansions have been completed or are underway at several Midwest refineries, including BP’s facility in northwest Indiana and Marathon Oil’s in Detroit. With more capacity, refineries will be able to process domestic as well as Canadian crude oil.

"This essentially gives Pittsburgh the ability to source production from the Great Lakes, rather than just the East Coast," Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, said, referring to the Allegheny Access project. "Whenever there is a pipeline added, it is sure to assist motorists."

Gasoline averaged $3.80 a gallon in Western Pennsylvania this week, up 3.3 cents from last week and just under the $3.82 national average.

Delta Air Lines Inc. bought an idled ConocoPhillips refinery near Philadelphia this year in an effort to slash its fuel costs, and the air carrier said it may bring North Dakota oil in by train to process there instead of sourcing crude from overseas. Some units at the refinery will start running this weekend, Delta said.

Donald Bowers, manager of petroleum and transportation for Superior Petroleum Co. in Ross, said gasoline supplies were steadier than normal this summer.

But motorists still pay 5 to 20 cents a gallon more in the seven-county Pittsburgh region than in neighboring areas because of the requirement that stations sell specially blended gas in the summer.

"That pipeline can do nothing but help us. It means more supply, and that is a good thing," Bowers said, adding that a Buckeye Partners L.P. subsidiary operates a former BP pipeline east to Pittsburgh that was unused until last summer.

Shares of Sunoco Logistics closed at $46.84, up 20 cents. The partnership owns 5,400 miles of crude oil pipelines and 2,500 miles of refined products lines in the Northeast, Midwest and Southwest.

Texas-based Cabot Oil & gasorp. announced on Tuesday that its gross Marcellus shale production has averaged more than 700 million cubic feet of natural gas per day for the last two weeks in Pennsylvani and West Virginia.

Talk about a win-win situation. Compressed carbon dioxide may be more suitable than water for fracturing methane-rich rock – a finding that could help the growing hydraulic fracturing industry extract more natural gas from spent fields. And because the carbon dioxide is then trapped below ground, the discovery could also spur the development of large-scale carbon sequestration.

The Energy Ministry plans to adjust its strategy for the period until 2030 because of the growth in shale gas production in the United States and liquefied natural gas output in the Asia-Pacific region, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said, Interfax reported Thursday.